Before Trinity: Felix Thurston
In the late 60's, Trinity was an NCAA division one school in the Southland Conference with Arkansas State University, University of Texas at Arlington, Abilene Christian University and Lamar University. They competed with major schools such as Texas A&M and University of Texas, and recruited alongside of some of the top basketball schools at the time. He grew up in Owensboro, Kentucky and had a historic high school career. Kentucky University at the time was one of the top in college basketball. However, their head coach, Adolf Rupp, was a public racist. Kentucky was an all-white team. The media gave a lot of criticism for this because many teams started having a few black people. Rupp took this and recruited Felix Thurston. Felix verbally committed to Kentucky and was set on going there at the moment. However, he thought about being the first black player at Kentucky and playing under Rupp and something struck and he changed his mind. Because I was not able to get an interview, I am missing the true reason why he uncommitted and the reason Trinity was his second choice, but I am glad he did (Martin.)